So Lana made her return to WWE TV last night and has suddenly found herself with a shot at becoming the blue brand's Women's Champion despite having wrestled a total of maybe 2 or 3 matches the entire time she's been with WWE, with those matches being some form of tag team match in which she barely had any ring time. Over the last 6 months or so, Lana has reportedly been putting in a lot of time at the Performance Center training to make the transition from manager/mouthpiece/valet to in-ring performer.

My expectations for this match, and for Lana's abilities, aren't very high and Vince is taking what's become an all too familiar route with Naomi as champion in that he has her looking weak and vulnerable by having her pinned on numerous occasions; she lost to Charlotte a number of weeks back, she's been pinned by Carmella twice in a couple of tag team settings and was pinned in the six women tag match last night by Tamina.

The writing on the wall is that Lana becomes the new SmackDown Women's Champion next Sunday and I think it's the wrong decision. I was initially encouraged last night when Shane told Lana she had to earn opportunities but, after her interference the six women tag match last night, Naomi demanded a match with Lana at MITB and said she'd make it a title match. The whole "land of opportunity" schtick is all well and good, but they're starting to take things a bit too far for my tastes. While we can debate the pros and cons of Jinder Mahal as WWE Champion, for example, at least Jinder has paid his dues over the years and wasn't handed a title shot in his first real match with the company.

__________________"What Do I Know Of Cultured Ways, The Gilt, The Craft And The Lie?
I, Who Was Born In A Naked Land And Bred In The Open Sky.
The Subtle Tongue, The Sophist Guile, They Fail When The Broadswords Sing.
Rush In And Die Dogs - I Was A Man Before I Was King."

I would love to see Lana as Champion. Mainly because "Big Booty" isnt credible at all for that title. Her in ring work is sub par and her promos are bad. At least with Lana you could get that promo part right. Unfortunately, Naomi wins this. As all others are busy with female MiTB, other match just serves so "Big Booty" has something to do. Meaning, Lana is there just so Naomi has a match and no surprises should be expected.

I actually don't mind this match, and I don't mind that the whole "land of opportunity" thing is becoming its own reason for why things happen on SmackDown. But, I am totally confused by the structure of the booking, since the only reason (kayfabe) that we are having the women's Money in the Bank ladder match is because they couldn't decide a contender in a match, right? So now Lana waltzes in, who wasn't even involved in that match, and gets a shot at the title. That just makes no sense. At least with, say, Jinder Mahal, he won a televised match to legitimately get a title match. Why couldn't they have had a six-woman match to determine the contender, have Lana or anybody win, and the remaining five become the participants in the Money in the Bank ladder match? I don't know, maybe I'm missing something here.

As for Lana herself, I'm excited to see what she can do. They obviously think she has the capabilities to put on a solid match - I doubt we see her in any proper action until Money in the Bank though. But, can she afford to lose this match? I would say yes because it's not like we should realistically have any expectation for her to win. But equally, if she does lose, after the weeks of hype and immediate contendership, it might flop horribly wrong. What's worse really is Naomi's treatment. Her title reign has been a bit of a shambles and if she loses this match, which I think she could, then where does she go from there? This was a real chance to build a champion around already established stars like Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Natalya, but the efforts were to no avail.

I see Lana winning this. If it was any other contender, I'd say Naomi retains since this is just a filler as everyone else is busy with the ladder match. But this isn't just any filler. It's Lana in effectively her WWE debut. WWE probably thinks they'd be worse off with her losing so soon.

So let me get this straight first we have a guy with a negative win-loss record wins the wwe title and now probably getting someone with a 0 win-Loss record winning. I understand land of opportunity but I mean can we get some build please. Why does everything always have to be rushed.

Considering everyone else in the ring was basically laughing at her last night, I feel like the story has to be that Lana's perceived as a joke, but when she gets in the ring with Naomi she's gonna show that she actually has a lot to offer. I don't know if I trust Lana's abilities that much and that's an awful lot to put on her shoulders. Or, maybe she'll prove everyone right and be a joke in the ring. Which means you gave a joke a championship match. Which means your champion just beat a joke. It doesn't help anyone. Maybe she'll surprise us. I hope she does.

Personally, I think this match is just being used as a strong way to introduce Lana to the Smackdown roster as a legitimate competitor. I doubt anybody is really expecting this to be a quality showing, which may help Lana a ton if she can actually work a decent match at the PPV. I see Naomi coming away with the win here, but Lana is likely going to take her to the limit thereby establishing herself as a justifiable threat to any woman on the roster.

I don't have a problem with this. Whether this works or not all really depends on how well Lana can perform on a big stage in her debut match.

This was a very weird setup, even for the WWE. I realize that Smackdown has become logically off-beat, but this is a new frontier for them.

From what I watched, I saw that Naomi wanted a match with Lana. Maybe it was Naomi flubbing her lines, but I didn't hear any mention of Money in the Bank or the Smackdown Women's Championship. Shane, after having going on a tangent about how you have to earn your shots earlier in the night, was all "Sure, you can have a match with Lana at Money in the Bank". However; I don't remember him stating that it would be for the Smackdown Women's Championship. What I remember is that the title wasn't even talked about until Talking Smack.

Please correct me if I just brain dumped half the setup for this match, but from my perspective this match undermines the normal protocol for a responsible setup.

I wish that we could have seen Lana wrestle a few one-on-one matches. They wouldn't even need to be good matches. Let us fans figure her out and be able to amp ourselves up at the right times depending on what we would have learned were her physical cues. Instead we're getting a ton of vague hype.

I like Naomi, I think she's cool. However; I don't think she's good enough to carry someone who's inexperienced. I'm afraid that this could end up looking like Shelley Martinez vs Rebel. I'll be watching, but I'll be on pins and needles hoping that this doesn't bomb so bad that the Women's division suffers as a result.

__________________
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. - Hamlet

Considering everyone else in the ring was basically laughing at her last night, I feel like the story has to be that Lana's perceived as a joke, but when she gets in the ring with Naomi she's gonna show that she actually has a lot to offer. I don't know if I trust Lana's abilities that much and that's an awful lot to put on her shoulders. Or, maybe she'll prove everyone right and be a joke in the ring. Which means you gave a joke a championship match. Which means your champion just beat a joke. It doesn't help anyone. Maybe she'll surprise us. I hope she does.

This is really what I'm hoping is the case. WWE makes some questionable decisions when it comes to matches and championships every so often and I'm hoping that Lana is actually decent, maybe even great. You wouldn't think that Vince would put her, or any talent for that matter, into this situation if she couldn't hold her own but Vince's decisions can be the epitome of illogical sometimes.

__________________"What Do I Know Of Cultured Ways, The Gilt, The Craft And The Lie?
I, Who Was Born In A Naked Land And Bred In The Open Sky.
The Subtle Tongue, The Sophist Guile, They Fail When The Broadswords Sing.
Rush In And Die Dogs - I Was A Man Before I Was King."

What they should do next week on Smackdown is have Lana beat some female jobber. I mean she should beat somebody before her match with Naomi, but not one of the MITB participants please! Supposedly CJ Perry(Lana's real name) knows muay thai so maybe she will use moves as part of her repertoire?